How does isopropanol inhibit PCR? - (Sep/21/2006 )

How does isopropanol inhibit PCR? Just curious...I've always seen that ethanol and isopropanol can inhibit PCR, but I'm not sure how?

the alcohol are inhibitors because enzymes are not active in the solution. The protein is precipitating little, and the conformation changes in an ethanolic environment.

Thanks for the input!

quote name='fuller' date='Sep 21 2006, 12:12 PM' post='69888']
How does isopropanol inhibit PCR? Just curious...I've always seen that ethanol and isopropanol can inhibit PCR, but I'm not sure how?
[/quote]

as fred said, isopropanol (alcohol) dehydrate PCR enzymes (proteins) and allow for their aggregation and finally precipitation, making reaction conditions not favorable anymore

That was informative,thanks for clearing it up!